Sweat Pea

Owen took a nap at preschool yesterday, which means he was up very late last night. At 10:00 I knew he was much more awake than I, so I decided to just have him go to bed with me in our bed. That way if I fell asleep before him, it wouldn't matter. Owen and I snuggled into bed (Brady was still out in the living room watching basketball), and he said to me, "I had so much fun with you today, Mommy. I love you. Thanks, sweat pea." It was so funny. I have called him sweat pea on and off since he was born. It was so funny to have him call me that.

Bedtime Books

Owen and I were lying in his bed last night, and I was reading books to him. We had two left, and I asked him which one he wanted next. He told me, "You can read both of them at the same time, Mommy."
"No I can't," I said.
"Yes you can because you have two eyes."
Kids are so logical!

Canvassing for Obama

Owen has been pretty interested in politics this year (see postings dating back to January). It's old hat around here, but someone commented on how amazed they were when Owen pointed out McCain as he flashed on the TV screen during a commercial break of a football game. It all started back in January when he totally cued into Brady and me as we watched the State of the Union address. A few months later he got to be in the front row as we listened to Bill Clinton campaign from a truck bed on the playground of my school. Finally, after months of talking about getting a new president, it's almost time to vote. So yesterday we headed out for a few hours of canvassing.

Brady was freshly back from a whirlwind trip to NY, so he stayed home, but my mom and I headed out with the boys. Owen and Quincy donned their oh-so-adorable Obama shirts, and off we went. We spent a few hours going door-to-door with a targeted list of democrats and independents. Owen, who is really into rhyming words these days, made up all sorts of little rhymes about Obama. My favorite was Obama Llama! GOTV canvassing is pretty fun because you're working with a targeted list which means you're pretty sure not to get angry people going on tirades about your candidate.

Of all the people we talked to, only one person was undecided. She was a very young, working class mom who had wanted to vote for Hillary and "just doesn't like how negative everything has gotten." She was holding her 8-month-old baby and was interested in my kids and the fact that I'm a teacher. We had a pretty lengthy conversation, and hopefully she'll decide to vote for Obama.

All in all, it was fun, and the kids were perfect! We'll be going out again next weekend. In addition to needing to uphold our county's record of highest voter turn-out, there are some really crazy ballot measures (as always around here) that people need to be voting on.

Shortly after we got home from canvassing, the mail arrived and in it were our ballots! Yea!!! I've always held on to my ballot until the last minute because I liked to vote on election day. I have been converted. I will fill out and turn in my ballot right away so that the local campaigns don't have to waste their resources (and I don't have to be bothered) by calling and knocking on our door. I would do it tonight except that Owen is already in bed, and I have been promising him for months that he could help me fill out my ballot!I don't think you can read Owen's shirt, but it says, "Obama-bama-bobama, banana-fana-fofama, me-my-momama, Obama!"

Mamas are meant to have padding.

My mom explained to my during both of my pregnancies that part of putting on weight during pregnancy is building up nursing reserves in case of a famine. I have discovered another purpose for that extra padding. 4 years and 4 months later, I am back to my pre-Owen-pregnancy weight. This has created a kind of cool albeit expensive problem with my wardrobe and a completely different kind of problem with Owen.

A few weeks ago I was carrying Owen on my hip. He kept shifting his weight around and finally said, "Ow, you're hurting me." It took me a few seconds before I realized that he was talking about my hip bone poking him. I didn't think too much of it, but then about a week ago Owen was sitting on my lap in the rocking chair for bedtime stories. He was trying to lay his head back and rest it, but he kept wriggling around and said again, "Ow, I can't get comfortable," and I realized his head was banging into my collar bone. Poor kid.

I don't want to imply that I don't have any padding left, because I certainly do. I just need to get creative and find a way for Owen to rest his head on my butt or my upper legs when I read to him.

Labor Day Camping Trip

We celebrated Labor Day weekend by going camping at Pacific City. It was so much fun!! Brady and I both had to work all day Friday, but Owen got to ride over to the coast in Grandpa Jimmy's big truck. They met Grandma Dawni there and had all kinds of fun all afternoon. Brady, Quincy, and I got there just in time for dinner.

Saturday treated us to a beautiful day at the coast. Grandma Dawni made us a delicious breakfast of hazelnut pancakes and sausages cooked on the camp stove as well as fresh fruit. Quincy was particularly fond of the fruit! Then Owen and Grandma Dawni settled in for a serious game of Candy Land. I think Owen bested Grandma 2 out of 3.

Later in the day, Brady, Owen and I played pickle ball (kind of like tennis but with paddles and a heavy whiffle ball) while Grandpa Jimmy watched with the dogs and Quincy ran amok on the court. It was all fun and games until he had a mishap with the rope from the net and fell on his forehead--pobrecito!

We wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather at the coast, so we headed to the beach. The boys loved playing in the sand! We ate dinner on the patio at the Pelican Brewpub, which was great because the boys got to continue playing in the sand. Quincy was fascinated by the seagulls that were walking around on the roof and kept pointing to them saying, "ook!". It was pretty cute.

When we got back to the campsite after dinner Brady and Grandpa Jimmy built a fire while Grandma Dawni and I bathed the boys. Then we were ready for s'mores! We didn't have any regular chocolate, so Ghirardelli Square chocolate mint squares filled in just fine:)

Grandma Dawni headed for home after s'mores, and the boys headed to bed. The boys were so sweet slumbering away together in the coziness of the tent. It rained pretty hard that night, but thankfully we stayed dry.

Sunday was a great day too. There were a few lingering rain showers, but there were patches of beautiful sunshine throughout the day. After a yummy breakfast at the campground lodge, Grandpa Jimmy and I took the boys for a hike in the sand hills above the campground. Owen has such an adventuresome spirit that going on hikes with him is always a treat. And peaking of treats...we were treated to a cool find on our hike...bear tracks...and bunny tracks too! The previous night's rain made the sand just the right consistency to preserve the tracks.

Later I got to relax and read my book while Quincy took his nap and Brady and Grandpa Jimmy took Owen swimming. Then we all hiked down to the beach and had a wonderful time running on the beach and daring the waves to catch us, which in fact they did.

After a delicious dinner, we packed up and headed for home in order to be here when Annanne would return the next day.

Thanks for the great camping weekend, Grandpa Jimmy and Grandma Dawni! We can't wait to do it again!!

10 Highlights of summer 2008

Well, I obviously didn't do a great job of keeping my blog up-to-date with our goings on this summer. Today is my last day of summer vacation, so as a tribute to summer 2008, here are 10 highlights from our wonderful summer (in no particular order).
1) New Mexico Trip. I actually did post about this, so I don't need to add any details here. It was so fun, and the boys are such great travelers!
2) Sunriver. We had two Sunriver trips this summer. I love going there! It's so relaxing, yet there is so much to do that you can't help but be super active. The boys and I had a great 5 days in Sunriver in July with Brittany, Rory, and Grandma Dawni. Our days consisted of walking to the village, riding a pony (Owen), playing at the pool, playing at the park, going into Bend, going to the High Desert Museum, watching for wildlife, oh, and Goody's (the old fashioned ice cream shop). This past weekend we went back to Sunriver, and this time Daddy went too! We met Brittany, Pat, Rory, Evan, Renee, Brian, and BrieAnne for a great 3 days. I was sick with a cold, so I wasn't as energetic, but we still had fun!
3) Otter Beach. For those of you that don't live in Corvallis, Otter Beach is the outdoor pool at our city pool. However, it's so much more than just a pool. There are baby slides, a big winding slide, a river current, and lots of other fun water play structures. During the weeks that we were actually in Corvallis this summer, we probably averaged 3 to 4 Otter Beach trips per week. It is SO much fun! I never managed to take my camera there. These pictures are from the Corvallis Parks & Rec website.
4) Ladies and Lads. Also known as Ladies and Babies. Ladies and Lads was a get-away weekend in Tahoe consisting of 4 ladies and 4 lads. The 4 ladies were my friends Caitlin, Lisa, and Trisha, and the 4 lads were Owen, Quincy, Finn (Caitlin's son--one month older than Quincy), and Clayton (Trisha's son--4 months older than Quincy). We stayed at Caitlin's uncle's beautiful "cabin" (and by "cabin" I mean palatial, top-of-the-line living) at Sugar Bowl where we made wonderful meals, played outside in the mountain air, swam a little in some lakes, and even got to go to the Tour de Fat festival (as in Fat Tire beer--my fave). It was so great to get to spend time with these ladies and the lads. I also discovered that, except for the whole polygamy thing, polygamists have got a great thing going. The communal living with so many moms was awesome! We had super delish meals made from scratch and a clean kitchen and house all the while with very happy babies who were being played with non-stop. It was like a well oiled machine. Can't wait for Ladies and Lads 2009!
5) Santa Rosa. We spent about two weeks in the SF Bay Area based out of Abuela and Noni Jo's house in Santa Rosa. I should really make a whole separate list of highlights just from Santa Rosa. We have so much fun when we go there!
*Howarth Park: this is the best park! Besides an incredible play area complete with spurting fountains, volcanoes with water for lava that the kids can control, a faux old-time town front, and livestock statues, there are pony rides, a petting zoo, a carousel, a mini train, and a lake where you can rent paddle boats and canoes. This is a favorite spot in Santa Rosa!
*Safari West: we went to Safari West for the second time. It's a gorgeous wildlife preserve in the hills between Santa Rosa and Calistoga. There are many, many, many different species of animals and birds. I think the highlight this time was a 7-week-old giraffe.
6) Great America and San Francisco. Brady flew down and met us for 5 days of our California trip. Brady loves amusement parks, so his special request was to go to Great America. We had a long and fun day there! Brad and Natalia met us for most of the day as well. Owen rode so many rides, and he discovered that he loves roller coasters. He's not tall enough for most of the big rides, but they have a large collection of kids rides there. Great America has also added a water park, so we got to cool off in the middle of the day.
The next day we headed back to Santa Rosa via San Francisco, and I got to catch up with some long-time friends. A super highlight of my summer was getting to meet up with my friend Bea and her 3 kids in Golden Gate park. We all rode the carousel, and then the kids all played very hard in the wonderfully redone kids' playground. The coolest part was this cement slide that you go down on pieces of cardboard. So fun! From there we rode the cable cars and then picked up Steph and had dinner with her at a very cool (and kid friendly) restaurant called Q. We got Quincy an adorable shirt from there.

7) The Olympics. Watching the Olympics was so exciting! And thank goodness for Tivo so we didn't have to stay up until 2am all the time. Also so Owen could see some of the Olympics. He got really into it. He loved watching the USA/China basketball game, but had a really hard time deciding who he was routing for since he likes Yao Ming but also the USA, especially Lebron. He also got very interested in swimming and, of course, is now a big Michael Phelps fan. In fact, he told me that he wants to learn to swim like Michael Phelps. He even pointed him out on a magazine cover.
8) Fairs. As in the Sonoma County Fair and the Oregon State Fair. We got to go to the Sonoma County Fair twice while we were in Santa Rosa, and we went to the Oregon State Fair with Grandma, Grandpa, Brittany, and Rory yesterday. Owen and Quincy both love seeing the animals. Quincy is fearless and wants to walk right into the barns, stables, and pens with the animals. Owen was such a big boy and rode many rides in the kids midway all by himself. We all had more than our fair share of fried food. A really fun thing about the Sonoma Country Fair is that they have horse racing, so we got to go to the races. Brady and Abuela especially had fun taking Owen to the paddock to look at the horses in the upcoming races. Owen and Abuela were good at picking the winners!
9) Our Back Yard. Thanks (and I mean many, many, MANY thanks) to Annanne, Abuela, and Noni Jo, we had some major work done in our back yard this summer. We extended our patio to the fence with cobblestone pavers, and put in a cobblestone path around the perimeter of our NEW lawn! It's our little haven out there. Quincy is enamored with the little red car, so he goes out there, climbs into the car, and then will wait for a very long time for someone to come and motor him around the track. Owen loves to run laps and always asks people to race him and commands his dad to "make the call" during the race. I am happy to see all the plants and flowers around the edge of the yard thriving.
10) Just being together. This year will be a big change for everyone in our household because I am going back to work full-time. Because of that, I have really and truly savored this summer of having so much time to be with Owen and Quincy doing wonderful and fun things. I am so grateful to Brady for making it work for me to be home half-time last year. I know we all benefited from it in various ways. I also know the kids are happy, healthy, safe, and secure enough for me to go back to work full-time. While the mom part of me is grieving the end of summer, the teacher part of me is excited for what I know will be a great school year.

There are so many, many more highlights that I should have included. We went to the zoo with Grandma Dawni, had a ton of fun on July 4th, did so many things in California that I didn't even mention, and had some great visitors to Oregon. Basically, we were too busy having fun for me to document it all.

CHEERS TO SUMMER 2008!